Prime Minister Narendra Modi lying, Jawaharlal Nehru piloted Hindu code bill: Congress

NEW DELHI: Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of lying at the Ambedkar memorial lecture, Congress on Monday said the Hindu code bill was piloted by the Nehru government and vociferously opposed by the BJP's ideological forebears Hindu Mahasabha and RSS.

“Nehru brought the bill in the teeth of fierce opposition from the rightwing led by Mahasabha and RSS. Also, in 2005, it was the UPA government which amended the Hindu Succession Act to give succession rights to women,“ AICC spokesman Manish Tewari said.

Modi accused the Congress government of ditching B R Ambedkar over the Hindu code bill, leading to his resignation from the Union Cabinet just after independence.

Lashing out at the PM, Tewari said he was “economical with the truth“ at the Ambedkar lecture as if eager to deflect accusations of being “anti-Dalit“.

He said Modi should talk to the RSS chief for triggering concerns that job reservations could be scrapped since Mohan Bhagwat had spoken about the possibility, adding there was no point in criticising Congress.

The Congress spokesman accused the RSS family and Modi of being “anti-Dalit“. “Did RSS not oppose the Constitution of India, written by Ambedkar? Did the first BJP prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee not set up a commission to review the Constitution,“ he said.

Congress asked why Modi was silence on the suicide of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula in which senior central ministers and BJP members were accused of abetment. “He even deployed party and government resources to question the caste of Rohith Vemula,“ Tewari said.

According to Tewari, Modi's mindset was evident from his book `Karmayog' in which he had lauded Dalits for finding spiritual experience in “carrying nightsoil“ which led to their continuing the occupation for hundreds of years.